“This case would have never had to go to trial if the offer had been remotely fair for a first offense,” defense attorney Tina Sypek D’Amato said.

In February, Riley rejected a plea bargain offer of 15 years in prison, suspended after six years served, plus 3 years’ probation.

Riley, 28, of Bridgeport, who did not have a criminal record and ran a successful business, went to Mohegan Sun on March 18 to gamble, he testified Wednesday. After discovering that he could not get money from an ATM there, he took a nap in his car and decided to rob someone after awakening, he said.

Riley got a carving knife that happened to be in his car and entered a parking garage. He followed an 83-year-old Norwich woman into an elevator and pulled the knife from his sleeve. Their encounter was captured on surveillance video.

D’Amato told jurors in her closing argument that Riley was indeed guilty of threatening and carrying a dangerous weapon.

But jurors did not accept Riley’s claim at trial that he had a change of heart and didn’t go through with the robbery attempt because he felt guilty and sorry for the woman.

Rather, by finding him guilty of attempted robbery, jurors accepted Carney’s explanation that Riley called off the robbery only after the woman refused to hand over her purse, and that if she had cooperated, he would have taken it.